Modern medical technology has produced a plethora of diagnostic testing modalities which are useful in diagnosing and evaluating disease. The amount of potentially useful data which can be generated from such testing modalities, including both image and non-image data, is enormous. However, because it is prohibitively expensive to perform every test which would yield useful information in evaluating a particular patient, physicians must balance the cost of a test versus its potential benefit before deciding that it should be performed. One factor causing such expense is the capital cost of the testing equipment, which is amortized and then reflected in the fee charged for each test. Another factor is the cost of the labor required of health care providers in both performing and evaluating diagnostic testing. It is toward the goal of reducing the costs caused by the latter factor that the present invention is directed.
The present invention is a system and method whereby medical examinations and evaluations of body fluids, tissues, structure, appearance, etc. may be automatically made, recorded and/or compared to past records of such examinations for the purpose of diagnosis and early treatment of disease. This system is designed to make use of artificial intelligence for accurate and rapid diagnosis and for adaptability. In one form, a digital computer is programmed to analyze clinical data according to criteria contained in a knowledge database in order to make both diagnoses and recommendations for further testing. A system and method in accordance with the invention incorporates a plurality of data input devices for directly inputting image and non-image data into the system for evaluation as well as allowing the manual inputting of other relevant clinical parameters. In a particular embodiment, the data input devices are under computer control so that certain tests may be performed automatically in accordance with the computer's evaluation of the input data.
It is a primary object of the present invention to provide a computerized system for diagnosing disease whereby clinical data pertaining to a particular patient is collected and automatically compared with previously collected data.
Another object is to provide a system and method for automatically making recommendations for further diagnostic testing based on present and past input data Another object is to provide a system and method whereby imaging and non-imaging diagnostic devices are automatically operated by a computer which is programmed to evaluate data from the diagnostic devices as it is generated.